_Eth._ (_furiously_). Give it me-- Give me the flask!
_Dar._ One moment, Ethais. This flask is precious, and it hath a price.
_Eth._ Name thou thy price, and I will give it thee. Take money, jewels, armor, all I have, So that thou leavest me one trusty sword!
_Dar._ No, Ethais, I do not want thy wealth, I want thy love--yes, Ethais, thy love; That priceless love that thou hast lavished on My worthless sister.
_Dar._ Yes, Thou lovest her--and dost thou think that I Will save thy life for her?
_Eth._ Selene? Bah! True, she is fair. Well, thou art also fair. What does it matter--her fair face or thine? What matters either face--or hers or thine-- When weighed against this outrage on my fame?
_Dar._ Give me this ring, and thou shalt have the charm.
_Eth._ ’Tis thine. And now, Sir Phyllon, take good heed!
_Sel._ Darine! Thou here, alone with Ethais! No, no. I will not doubt--
_Dar._ Doubt whom thou wilt! Thou hypocrite! thou shameless hypocrite! Thou wretched victim of thine own designs.
_Dar._ Doubt all of us, For we are false to thee as thou to us. I am as thou hast made me, hypocrite!
_Sel._ Thou art to me as thou hast ever been, Most dearly loved of all these dearly loved.
_Dar._ Away! Thou art the source of all our ill; For though we counseled thee to do the deed That brought this blight upon our innocence, ’Twas but a test, and thou hast bent to it!
_Zay._ Oh, miserable woman, get thee hence! Thou art no queen of ours!
_Loc._ Away with her! Down with the traitress queen! (_SELENE turns from one to another--all turn away from her._)
_Sel._ So let it be. Yes, thou hast rightly said--I had a trust. I have forsaken it. Through my default, The taint of earth has fallen on our land. Mine was the sin--be mine the punishment. Well-loved Darine, take thou this diadem: Wear it more worthily than I. (_Places her coronet on DARINE._) Behold How royally it rests upon her brow! My gentle sisterhood, behold your queen! (_Fairies bow._) Let her fair face and form untainted yet By the iniquity of my default, Recall the loved Darine of yesterday-- The gentle, loving, maidenly Darine-- Who would have been that loved Darine to-day, But for my erring deed. Oh, shame on me! Thou art as I have made thee. Who am I That I should judge my sister? I am loved; But had I lost that love, should I have borne My loss more patiently than thou? Alas! Thou, I, and all, are now as mortals are.